Del dette innlegget

Lenke til innlegg

Del på andre sider

Gjest Gaute Klepp

Gjest Gaute Klepp

Klippet fra Ancestry.Com:Maria Knutsdatter Olsen, Muskegon, Michigan, USFamily stories passed down. Information from Judy Anderson (Aunt)Maria (Mary) was born on March 15th 1865 in Salhus, Nordaland, Norway. She was the tenth and last child of Knut Olsen (1803 - 1865) and Ragnhilde Oledatter (1823 - 1900). When Maria was three days old, her father died. Of the ten children born to this marriage, six died in childhood.Ragnhilde was left to raise her four children alone, the eldest then twelvem and the next year she married again. Her second husband was Helge Iversen (1831 - 1913) and together they had two children, one of whom, Bert, survived childhood.Hordaland is the area around Bergen, Norway. It is a land with a very uneven shoreline along the Atlantic. The coast us cut by multitudes of fjords and rivers between high, rocky, headlands. No one is very far from water. The countryside is at the same latitude as southern Alaska; a land of long, dark winters and short summers. Even though it's not known exactly how the family made its living, farming would be the best guess with perhaps some fishing on the side. (This considering their settlement in farming near water in Michigan).The late 1860s were a time of starvation and poverty across Northern Europe. Many summers were cold and wet, the crops failed (especially the ever useful white potatoe) and people who never had much suddenly had nothing. People began to starve, especially the young and the old; they lost or were thrown off their land. Farms were abandoned and beggars roamed the countrysides. Any family that survived those years was not only thankful but forever fearful that poverty would overtake them again.It seems that of the four first family children and one second family child of Ragnhilde, only three came to the U.S. Jacob (John) Knutsen (1856 - 1915) and his wife, Katrina Christiandatter (1859 - 1923) were married in Norway and became the parents of ten children. The first, Simon, was born in 1874 so the marriage was probably about that time. The seventh, Pearl, was born in North Muskegon, Michigan in 1884 or 1886, three or five years after number six, Minniem, was born in Norway in 1881. This offers an idea of when the family must have emigrated to the U.S.But did the Knutsens and the Iversons all come together? Dad though (Ted Anderson), and her obit says, that mary arrived when she was about seventeen which would have been in 1882 and stayed with Jacob at first. It's doubful that a young lady would travel alone, but she might easily have emigrated with Jacobs family to help with his six young children. They would most likely have come in sterrage from Bergen and by train from New York or Boston. Did Mary's mother and step-father come at the same time? They might also have done so to lend a hand with the grandchildren and to make it easier to keep the family together in the 'new' land. Their one child, Bert (1871 - 1953), was certainly old enough to travel and help out. However,Bert's obit says that he moved from Norway to Whitehall when he was fifteen. That would have been about 1886.When Mary wed Gust in 1884, her address was entered as Whitehall, Michigan, a town about a dozen miles north of Muskegan. My Dad (Ted Anderson) said that Mary did housework before she was married which may explain why she wasn't with JAcob. The story goes that Mary was appalled when one employer asked if she 'painted', a question prompted by her rosy cheeks. No properly brought up lady wore make-up.Mary used her fathers surname before her marriage, unlike her siblings who following the Scandinavian tradition of using the father given name plus - Sen (Son) or datter.Ragnhilde and Helge are buried in Fruitland. Why did they end up in a small place like Muskegon? At that time, there was a fair sized Swedish settlement in the town. Perhaps they knew someone from the old country who had settled there and written letters home. Lumber companies often advertised for workers in Europe and even offered steerage tickets in return for work contracts. Muskegon is too small a town to have attracted people who hadnt heard of it elsewhere.The brothers ended up in North Muskegon and went to work for a lumber company. The job usually meant living in the woods as a Jack during the winter and working in the mills in the warm weather. There were some specialized jobs in the woods such as cooks, blacksmiths or teamsters, but most men were harvesters of trees. The only things I heard were about Gust working in the mills and losting his finger tip.Most of the unmarried men lived in company dormitories or private rooming houses when in town. Two farm boys would have been prepaid for hard work, long hours and primitive living conditionsWhen did the rest of Gusts and Ivers family arrive in the US? Did Sara and her four children,(Sophia (1853 - 1935) already married, stayed in Sweden), all come at the same time? Another mystery lost in time. *** note: perhaps not, see census information. It is probable that Gust and Iver sent them tickets when they had saved enough money. Anders also ended up in North Muskegon. Gust was said to have been the only child who would talk to him. Sara and Anders (Andrew) are buried together in Fruitland Cemtery, Muskegon County.

Del dette innlegget

Lenke til innlegg

Del på andre sider

Gjest Gaute Klepp

Gjest Gaute Klepp

Marie f. 1865 giftet seg 11 august 1884 med Gustav Aaron Anderson. Gustav Aaron Anderson, Muskegon, Michigan, USGustav Aaron Anderson - Information from Judy AndersonOn October 26th, 1862, Gustav (Gust) Aaron was born to Sara Stina Lord Danieldatter (1831 - 1909) and Anders Swanson or Svenson (1829 - 1914) in Jonkoping, Sweeden. He was the fourth of seven children and the eldest son.The Swansons were tenant farmers in a hilly and probably sandy area near the south west corner of a large lake called Vattern. The lake is about a hundred miles long and fifteen miles wide. There are many lakes in the area, adding fish to a diet of potatoes and grain. This area would also have suffered from the starvation times in the 1860s, but the family lost no children.Anders and Sara seperated some time in the marrirage. Their last child, Elizabeth was born in 1871 and it may have been after her birth. There were rumours that Anders (Andrew) had a girlfriend by who he fathered a child. This may have been in Sweden or N. Muskegon, US.There was little chance of advancement for children of tenant farmers in Sweden and so Gust and his brother Iver (1865 - 1931) set sail for the US. about 1880. They would most likely have taken the train to Goteborg, about a hundred miles from Jonkoping and sailed to Boston or New York. Another train would have got them to Muskegon.Why did they end up in a small place like Muskegon? At that time there was a fair sized Swedish settlement in the town. Perhaps they knew someone from the ld country who had settled there and written letters home. Lumber companies often advertised for workes in Europe and even offtered steerage tickets in return for work contracts. Muskegon is too small a town to have attracted people who hadn't heard of it elsewhere.The brothers ended up in North Muskegon and went to work for a lumber company. The job usually meant living in the woods as a jack during the winter and working in the mills in the warm weather. There were some specialized jobs in the woods such as cooks, blacksmiths, or teamsters, but most men were harvesters of trees. The only things I heard about gust working in the mills was losing his finger tip.Most of the unmarried men lived in company dormitories or private rooming houses when in town. Two farm boys would have been prepared for hard work, long hours and primitive living conditions.**See Maria Knutdatter Olsen for more detailsGust Anderson and Mary Olsen were married on August 11th 1884 in North Muskegon with brother IVer and the ministers wife as witnesses. How they met is not known as Mary lived about twelve miles away in Whitehall. Her brother, Jacob, still lived in N Muskegon and that could be the link.Their wedding picture picture shows a young lady perhaps five feet tall with light brown hair and a pleasant face. Her eyes were green. Her velvet trimmed dress must have been warm for the day if the photo was taken in August. Her new husband is seated before her. A very handsome man with darkbrown hair and bright blue eyes, we know him to be about five feet seven.Gust contined to work in the mills. They probably rented a funished room or two and finally settled in a rented house 'under the hill' when the babies started to arrive. There were to be a dozen births in twenty years.The first four babies, Henry (1885), Ellen (1886), William (1888), and Annie (1890) were born in North Musekgon. At five months Henry died of Diptheria. Mary was so sick witht he same disease that she was unable to attend his funeral. The record says that Henry was buried in North Muskegon but Dad (Ted Anderson) was told by Gust that he took the baby across the Muskegon Lake by ferry to bury him in Muskegon. (I can find no record in the area cemetery lists so his grave was probably unmarked, or just 'baby' )By the late 1880s Gust could see that the trees in the Muskegon area had been harvested and that there was no future in the mills of Musekgon. He had bought forty acres of land in Fruitland Township by 1890 and added antoher twenty later. This was called a 'stump farm' meaning that the trees had been cut but the stumps were left to be pulled up before a crop could be made. There were still stumps there when Dad (Ted Anderson) was growing up. After they were pulled some were used as fences and some as firewood. Unfortunately, Gust believed the old saying that if tree's grew on land, it was fertile. This was not true of his land which was not only thin and sandy but also suffered from the poor plowing practices of the time.Gust, Mary and their four children moved to Fruitland sometime before 1892 when Elenor was born in the new house. By then, Gust, an excellent carpenter, had built a small house and cleared enough stumps to plant a crop. In time there would be five bedrooms in the house (finished in 1909), a small barn with eight or ten stanchions and an inside silo, chicken and pig houses, and a corn crib.Life on the farm was never easy. Eleanor (1892 - 1981) was born on the first January at the farm with Arthur the same year and Lillian in early 1894. Arthur and Lillian were born and died on the same day, perhaps preemies or stillborn. I suspect that living on the farm at first was so much work that Mary lost those two babies as a result. Five more babies were to arrive succesfully by 1904.Gust raised corn and small grains as well as Potatoes. There were pigs and chickens, a team of horses (Fly and Dick for years), and some cows. Mary tended the chickens. Much of the grain went to the animals with some to the family. At some point, Gust started a butter and egg route on Jackson Hill in Muskegon, with Potatoes in season. That as well as being the sexton at the cemetery and the neighborhood carpenter brought him some cash.There were a lot of relatives living in Fruitland a hundred years ago. Marys brother, Jacob, was a few miles further away in Muskegon. Their half brother, Bert, had a farm about a mile south of Mary and Gust. Gusts sister, Emma (1857 - 1929) Married Peter Dalson and they also lived in N. Muskegon. Matilda (Tilda 1859 - 1934) married John Ackerberg and lived a quater of a mile west of Gust and Mary. Elizabeth (lizzie (1871 - 1942) ) married August Berggren and moved to a farma mile south and another last, Axel married Olga Swartz and farmed a mile North and west of Gust. Iver (1865 - 1931) married Theodora Nelson in Musekgon where he was a rural mail carrier then a deputy sherrif, then owned a grocery store on Jackson Hill. (This is possibily why Gust's Butter and Egg route was also there).As each of Gust's and Mary's children finished 8th grade (except Elanor), he or she left the farm and went to work in Muskegon or further west. If Dad (Ted Anderson) is an example, he left because he hated the farm. The work was endless and as the youngest, he was very lonely after the others left. He never wanted to be a farmer. There were economic reasons for all of the departures, also, I'm sure.Gust and Mary worked the farm as long as they were able to and then suffered through the depression there. Mary died in 1938 after fifty four years if marriage. Gust went the next year. The buildings are gone and the land is covered with trees, now. Most of it is still in the family.